Valedictory Address
Fellow Graduates, Parents, Honoured Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
It is my honour to be the Valedictorian of the Graduating Class of 2001 for Worsley Central School. I've been a student at Worsley for all of my 13 years of formal education – Kindergarten through grade 12. I have known all of my fellow graduates well; some have been a part of this class for all of those 13 years; others for the last three years. It has not always been joy or even camaraderie, but there is no doubt that the people you see before you are a very tightly knit group. We work well together and enjoying playing together too. Yet we are also incredibly individualistic, willing to take a stand, to speak our minds. Some of us are slaves to academia; some are patrons of the sports; some are extroverts of society; but together we make up the Worsley Class of 2001.
Our parents were the ones who started us on our way. Some of us were tearful, but we were also wide-eyed and overcome at the prospect of a new experience called school. At home we learned to walk, talk and we were the rulers of the roost. Now we learned to work, help and share. These skills seemed foreign to us and sometimes difficult. School taught us that trying was important. Failing to be successful initially at a task was simply a learning experience and we soon learned that we should treat every error that way, so success would follow us.
School became a new dimension to our lives. It was filled with wonder and new experiences. It was filled with other children who played like we played, thought like we thought, and dreamed like we dreamed, and so we developed as a homogenous group of peers.
But no matter how similar we seemed, there was still a definite sense of individuality within each of us, ... everyone having his or her own agenda to follow. Some stayed working 'till long after the bell, completing the work for personal satisfaction; others waited impatiently by the door counting the seconds until recess. These personalities and ideals were present all throughout our schooling. Sure, there were days when the most academic of us refused to open their books, and when the most free-spirited of us refused to budge from the story we were enjoying.
Friendships developed and dissipated as well. There were times of coolness and distrust, but the warmth always came back and we were sociable once again. We have the teachers to thank for this; they helped us to be a little less selfish and to work together for the good of everyone around us. All of them were so much more than just dispensers of information, ... they all became important mentors, and we should be forever grateful to them for making us not only smarter, but also more personable.
People have come and gone from our class. That list is longer than the number of us graduating today. The ones who have left the halls of Worsley are still remembered, and their impact is still felt today. Whether we have had the majority of our schooling at Worsley, Bear Canyon, or Menno Simmons, we now all feel part of the same clique. We are now a group who work together, support each other, and tease each other with good humour. Each one of these experiences has made us grow and develop into the unique people we are. Socializing in school has helped to create the people we have become. Our teachers know us to constantly chat during class and explore issues and develop our own perspectives; sometimes we actually chat about the work!
We are gathered here to celebrate our accomplishment of finishing our secondary school education and our entrance into society at large. In a few weeks, we get ready to leave this institution, to go to post-secondary school, to work, or to make some decisions later.
These past few years may or may not be the best years of our lives, but I hope that they will forever be remembered. I know that I will never forget all the laughs and tears that I've experienced because of these wonderful classmates. To my fellow grads, I hope that the time that we've spent together is a small time as compared to the rest of your life, but that this time will be remembered as one of the most important. As our Grad song says, I hope you all dance, because if you can dance, you can be happy!
Cara
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